Aging and Old Age

Are the elderly posing a threat to America’s political system with their enormous clout? Are they stretching resources to the breaking point with their growing demands for care? Distinguished economist and legal scholar Richard A. Posner explodes the myth that the United States could be on the brink of gerontological disaster.

Aging and Old Age offers fresh insight into a wide range of social and political issues relating to the elderly, such as health care, crime, social security, and discrimination. From the dread of death to the inordinate law-abidingness of the old, from their loquacity to their penny-pinching, Posner paints a surprisingly rich, revealing, and unsentimental portrait of the millions of elderly people in the United States. He explores issues such as age discrimination in employment, creativity and leadership as functions of age, and the changing social status of the elderly. Why are old people, presumably with less to lose, more unwilling to take risks than young people? Why don’t the elderly in the United States command the respect and affection they once did and still do in other countries? How does aging affect driving and criminal records? And how does aging relate to creativity across different careers?

Introduction Pt. 1: Aging and Old Age as Social, Biological, and Economic Phenomena1: What Is Aging, and Why? 2: Old Age Past, Present, and Future 3: A Human-Capital Model of Aging 4: An Economic Model of Aging with Change Assumed Pt. 2: The Economic Theory Elaborated and Applied5: The Economic Psychology of the Old 6: Behavioral Correlates of Age 7: Age, Creativity, and Output 8: Adjudication and Old Age 9: The Status of the Old and the Aging of Institutions Pt. 3: Normative Issues10: Euthanasia and Geronticide 11: Social Security and Health 12: Legal Issues of Aging and Old Age: A Sampler 13: Age Discrimination by Employers and the Issue of Mandatory Retirement Index